Patrick Mason trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, London. He joined the Abbey as Voice Coach and Assistant Director in 1972, worked with Hugh Hunt (The Silver Taffie) and Michael Cacoyannis (Oedipus) and taught in the Abbey School of Acting. Appointed Fellow in Drama at Manchester University in 1974 and the Lecturer in Performance Studies. He taught and co-ordinated courses at graduate and post-graduate level and directed at the Stables Theatre and the University Theatre.

He returned to the Abbey as a resident director in 1997. He directed John Bull's Other Island and The Seagull for the Irish Theatre Company, She Stoops to Conquer and The Rivals for Greenwich Theatre, London and Kreig at the Project Arts Centre. He won a Harvey's Award for his production of The Pirates of Penzance at the Olympia Theatre in 1981.

As a freelance director in 1983 he directed The Crucifer of Blood at the Bristol Old Vic and A Woman of No Importance, his first production at the Gate Theatre. In 1985 he directed Saint Joan at the Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis and Heartbreak House and Innocence at the Gate Theatre. In autumn 1986, he directed Michael Frayn's new translation of The Seagull at the Palace Theatre, Watford. Other theatre work includes The Importance of Being Earnest and The School for Scandal at the Gate and Desire Under the Elms in Greenwich. He won a Harvey's Award for his production of Peer Gynt at the Gate Theatre in 1988.

He has kept his association with the Abbey and Peacock Theatres over the years and amongst the many productions he directed at the Abbey and Peacock are Our Town, Mrs Warren's Profession, You Never Can Tell, A Flea in Her Ear, The Winter's Tale, The Cherry Orchard, Arms and the Man, A Pagan Place, Talbot's Box (which

transferred to the Royal Court), The Death of Humpty Dumpty, Canaries, The Factory Girls, The Gigli Concert, Too Late for Logic, The Silver Tassie and six Tom MacIntyre works at the Peacock: Jack Be Nimble, Find the Lady, The Great Hunger, The Bearded Lady, Rise Up Lovely Sweeney, Dance for you Daddy and Snow the Peacock. He also directed Una Pooka and Hubert Murray's Widow by Michael Harding at the Peacock. His production of The Great Hunger toured to Belfast, London, Edinburgh, Paris, Leningrad, Moscow, Philadelphia and New York.

His production of Dancing at Lughnasa premiered at the Abbey before touring to the Royal National Theatre and transferring to the Phoenix Theatre in the West End, the Plymouth Theater, Broadway and a tour of Britain and Australia. He received the Tony Award for Best Director in 1992. In 1993, he directed Wonderful Tennessee for the Abbey Theatre, which transferred to the Plymouth Theater, New York.

In 1994, he was appointed Artistic Director of the National Theatre Society.

His most recent productions for the Abbey Theatre include Hugh Leanard's Chamber Music, Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme by Frank McGuinness, The Well of the Saints by J M Synge, Brian Friel's Philadelphia, Here I Come, Angels in America by Tony Kushner, The Only True History of Lizzie Finn by Sebastian Barry, Macbeth, She Stoops to Folly by Tom Murphy, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde by Thomas Kilroy, The Wake by Tom Murphy, Saint Joan and, most recently, Dolly West's Kitchen by Frank McGuinness, which transferred to the Old Vic, London.

His opera credits include four productions for Wexford Festival: La Cena delle Beffe (1988). Don Giovanni, Turandot (1989) and Betrothal in a Monastery (1990). He directed Don Giovanni for Dublin Opera, Don Pasquale for Opera North, ENO and Israeli Opera and Rigoletto for WNO and Opera North. In 1997 he directed Puccini's Il Trittico for ENO.

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